Trainer Bob Baffert may be down, but don’t dare count him out in the wake of War Emblem’s crushing defeat in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes – the third time in the last six years one of Baffert’s Triple Crown hopefuls fell short in the Belmont, and the fourth time in that span he’s won two of the three classics.

This Saturday at Churchill Downs, Baffert runs his 4-year-old colt Congaree – arguably the best older horse in the nation – as the highweighted favorite in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap. And War Emblem, despite a near-disastrous stumble at the start of the Bel mont that likely cost him the race, miraculously came back uninjured. The black “stealth bomber” figures to see action again by this fall, with the Oct. 26 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Arlington Park his ultimate goal.

“We’ll take him back to California on Sunday, give him some time off, and he’ll tell us when he’s ready to run again,” Baffert told The Post from Louisville. “It’s too soon to say what his next race will be, but he should make the Breeders’ Cup easy.”

Baffert, exhausted after the Triple Crown grind, is disappointed “we let the fans down” in the Belmont, but he’s convinced War Emblem had no chance after the bad break.

“We scoped him, and he didn’t bleed, but I think when he got in behind horses like that, he displaced (his soft palate in his throat) and shut his air off,” he said. “I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt, which often happens when they stumble like that. But he’s a light horse, and so athletic. He didn’t seem that tired after the race.”

War Emblem doesn’t figure to show up at Saratoga for the Travers, however. Last summer, Baffert had rough sledding at the Old Spa, as Congaree was injured in the Jim Dandy and Point Given never raced again after winning the “Midsummer Derby.”

“My horses seem to have bad luck running over those sandy racetracks,” he said.